Day after San Francisco
This became a two-airport post. The first portion was constructed in sunny Oakland. More typing on the plane and I finished it up at cloudy Sea-Tac.
First, the links: Game stories from The S-R, San Francisco Chronicle and ESPN.com (Diamond Leung was watching on TV at his residence nearby and decided to come to the gym when the game heated up in the second half).
Read on for my day-after San Francisco post.
--As mentioned in last night’s post, the Gonzaga-USF game was one of the wildest I’ve ever witnessed, featuring clutch shots, fluke shots, free-flowing offense, defense optional, controversial calls, clutch free throws, not-so-clutch free throws.
It was a wonderfully entertaining game, in contrast to Thursday's foul/turnover fest at
“It was like one of those games you see on TV and you see the highlights of all these crazy plays,” guard Steven Gray said. “It was one of those days for
There were 19 lead changes and the score was tied 14 times. USF’s biggest lead was six points, GU’s five.
--Let’s revisit the intentional foul called on Robert Sacre in the closing seconds. As I watched the replay on a small court-side monitor, I knew what was coming. The NCAA has made elbows thrown above the opponents’ shoulders a point of emphasis this season and they come with a stiff penalty. As I understand it, when a violation occurs, refs are obligated to call either a flagrant foul or an intentional foul, with flagrant being more punitive (player ejected).
The Washington Post had a pretty good look at the new rule in a Christmas Day article.
There’s little debate the officials enforced the rule correctly. Sacre appeared to make contact with USF’s Angelo Caloiaro’s chin. There should be plenty of debate over the rule itself. It’s designed to protect player safety, and that’s obviously of extreme importance, but it also tends to leave rebounders with their arms glued to their sides – when they’ve been taught to chin the ball with elbows out most of their careers.
There’s a middle ground somewhere, and I’d be surprised if the rule isn’t revisited at the end of the season.
“I want to help my guys but I don’t know what to coach the rebounder (to do),” said Gonzaga coach Mark Few, who felt Sacre was fouled before he swung his elbows.
Sacre said the officials told him “it was an intentional foul because I threw my elbows. I don’t really know what else to say. I don’t know how you can defend yourself if you can’t put your elbows out.”
Caloiaro’s take: “I tipped it back up and missed it. It came back and Sacre grabbed it. I was behind him and he didn’t see me, I was going in for the jump ball and as I was going in he brought his elbows pretty hard and got me on the side of chin. He definitely got me pretty good.
“The refs let our coaches know at the beginning of the year and they let us know. They’re going to be calling the elbow, you have to be careful. You definitely have to keep it in the back of your head.”
--There isn’t enough space to detail all the clutch 3s (one with 41.6 seconds left by David Stockton, one by Demetri Goodson with 6 seconds left and one by Mathis Mönninghoff with 50.8 seconds left in OT) and the handful of momentum-shifting buckets by the Dons.
“Those were huge shots,” Few said. “We hit huge shots, obviously they hit huge shots. Some guys stepped up and we played really hard. I don’t think either team probably played the type of defense they wanted to but guys were hitting shots. I thought we made enough plays at the end, we got the stop we needed with 19 seconds left and the rebound … ”
Few didn’t complete the sentence, preferring not to revisit the foul call on Sacre.
Michael Williams, who leads the Dons at 16 points per game, was just 1 of 8 in the first half, but rebounded to finish with 16 points (4 of 8 shooting) in the second half. Cody Doolin, a crafty guard, had a career-high 23 points, including a nifty left-hander that eventually decided the game in overtime. It was just Doolin’s fifth double-figures scoring game of the season.
Steven Gray and Caloiaro banked in 3s, but the topper was Rashad Green’s bank – on a shot from the corner in OT. Manny Arop defended Green nearly perfectly, but Green stepped back and launched the shot just before the shot clock expired. It found a home in the net, after being redirected off the backboard. USF led 91-87.
--Goodson had a big first half with 17 points, draining three early jumpers, including a 3, his first in WCC play. He later added the game-tying 3 and finished with 20 points, a season high.
“It felt great,” he said. “If you see me warm up, you’d be like, ‘Man, he can really shoot the ball.’ For some reason during games, 3s don’t want to fall for me. Today I hit a jumper early and that got me going. They kept leaving me open in that corner and they kept going in and I got more and more confidence.”
--Gonzaga’s defense has dropped off in recent weeks. The defense was one of the reasons for GU’s nine-game winning streak, but WCC teams, other than Loyola Marymount, have shot the ball with success against the Zags. Two have shot above than 50 percent, two others have made at least 46 percent.
“We’ve given up a lot of points, a lot of penetration,” Gray said. “We have to go back to defending way we were and finishing off plays.”
USF had five players score at least 15 points. Williams, Doolin, Green, Caloiaro and even forward Perris Blackwell had success going 1-on-1 in spread-the-court situations. Blackwell provided an interior presence with 15 points, 12 boards, and three blocks. That 1-on-1 style explains the Dons finishing with just nine assists.
“They have a nice team,” Few said. “They’ve really started coming together here in last three weeks. They spread you out and shoot it extremely well, and they have a big guy inside that can go to work.”
USF made 48.5 percent of its shots in the first half, 46.2 percent in the second.
“Our defense needs some work obviously,”
--The Dons were called for two technical fouls, one on the bench during first-half play and one on coach Rex Walters, who was whistled after leaving the court at halftime. GU hit all four of the free throws.
“I thought at half, ‘Gosh, I could have lost our team the game in a situation like that,’ ” Walters said. “I’m obviously disappointed that we got them.”
--USF hasn’t been an offensive powerhouse most of the season. They opened the season with 97 points against Seattle U., but they managed just 59 versus Montana State, 35 against No. 24 Louisville, 62 vs. Loyola Chicago, 50 vs. Montana, 52 vs. Washington, 56 vs. San Diego State, and 57 against Saint Mary’s.
“That might have been who they were playing a little bit,” Few said, “but they’ve shown that (playing fast-paced) on tape.”
The Dons put up 81 points on
“The Washingtons, Louisvilles, San Diego States, playing Loyola Chicago early and losing that … a lot of these games we lost early, we’ve been in those situations and we’re much more prepared for it,” Walters said.
--I mentioned in the game story that GU has been solid at the free-throw line most of the season. The Bulldogs’ 76-percent accuracy ranked 16th nationally, but they struggled Saturday night. Manny Arop, a 62.5-percent FT shooter, was just 1 of 6. Elias Harris, 76.3-percent shooter, missed the front end of a one-and-one with 2:26 left, but Arop was fouled on the rebound. He missed both shots. About a minute later, Arop was fouled again on a rebound and made 1 of 2.
Gray (78.3 percent) was 5 of 9 in the game. He made 1 of 4 in OT. Harris made 1 of 2 and Arop, fouled as he pursued a rebound on Harris’ missed FT, went 0 of 2.
“That’s just a matter of us getting our reps and making sure we’re doing that,” Gray said. “If we are, and I think the majority of us are doing that, it’s just one of those days.”
USF, meanwhile, came in at 66.2 percent from the stripe. The Dons made 27 of 32 (84.4 percent).
--The two road losses obviously leave Gonzaga climbing uphill in the WCC standings. It also puts GU’s chances for an at-large NCAA berth, provided it doesn’t earn the conference’s automatic bid, in deeper jeopardy.
“Our coaches have been in this conference for a long time, they know what’s coming,”
Few wasn’t reaching for the panic button.
“I told them it’s early in the league season, we still control own destiny,” he said. “That was a heck of a ball game. The best thing about college athletics is you’ve got another game coming around the corner. We can pout and hang our heads after the last game of the season.”
STATS OF NOTE
--Gonzaga solved the turnover bug that bothered them Thursday (19 turnovers). The Zags had 10 against USF.
--Sacre had a solid stat line: 14 points, nine rebounds, four assists, three blocks. It was just the second game this season (Notre Dame being the other) where Sacre didn’t have a free-throw attempt.
--Gray also filled the stat sheet: 20 points, eight boards, four assists. He played 43 minutes.
--Adding to the teams’ offensive efficiency, they combined for a whopping 37 offensive rebounds, which led to 37 second-chance points.
--
--The Dons have won six of their last seven games.
--USF, at 4-1 in conference, is off to its best WCC start since the 1981-82 season.
--Neither of GU’s games on the road trip was sold out. That’s unusual. There were 500-700 empty seats both nights.
--Like several WCC teams, the Dons are stocked with young talent. USF has just one senior, backup forward Moustapha Diarra. He played just 11 minutes against GU.
--Goodson drained all six of his FT attempts.
--At one point in the second half, GU had Gray on the floor with Olynyk,
The group contributed to a 16-8 run that gave Gonzaga the lead 70-67 midway through the second half.
--Gonzaga has lost four of its last nine WCC road games.
QUOTES
Goodson: “I don’t want to put it on the refs because we should have been up by more than one or two at the end of (regulation). They do a great job of spreading you out and it makes it hard to help on defense. They shoot it well from 3. We got some pretty tough calls down the stretch, but I can’t blame it on the refs. It’s all on us.”
Few on whether he’s kept an eye on Saint Mary’s: “No, we’ve been playing. We’ve had a tough schedule. I knew going on the road would be tough with this team. We’ve got a lot of young guys. The road has been hard on us this year. We’ve had some success, but we took a step back this weekend.” (GU is 1-5 in road games, the win coming against
Walters on Williams and Doolin: “It helped that Gray was in foul trouble. I felt like Gray’s size bothered Mike in the first half, but when he gets in foul trouble some other guys are guarding him. He’s pretty good at creating space to get his shots up. It was nothing high tech. It was basic isolation, let’s let Mike make a play.”
“(Doolin) has a very high basketball IQ. He really understands the game, great feel. He’s probably a throwback to Gonzaga’s point guards back in the day, the (Matt) Santangelos and (John)
Caloiaro: “We thought at our home we should be able to get any team in our conference. Obviously it’s a great win because Gonzaga has a really good team, but we came in expecting to win.”
